French aircraft carrier rejoins US-led fight against IS
- by Leah Brady
- in Worldwide
- — Oct 1, 2016
However, it is unclear whether the jets will carry out airstrikes or reconnaissance.
Sep 30, 2016- France has begun air operations over Iraq from the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, reports say.
IS seized Mosul along with other areas in June 2014, but Iraqi forces have since regained significant ground from the jihadists and are readying for an assault to retake Iraq's second-largest city with coalition air and artillery support.
France has sustained a number of terror attacks from Daesh-linked groups in the last few years, including most recently July's attack in Nice during Bastille Day celebrations.
French radio station RTL reported that 24 aircraft will take part in today's operation, with a sortie every three minutes, on average.
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The offensive marks the third anti-terrorist operation in which the Charles de Gaulle has taken part since February 2015.
A French defense official said Friday's mission "in no way" constitutes the beginning of the battle for Mosul. The country has flown 32 missions in both Iraq and Syria in the past week, according to the French military. Each of the aircraft is supplied with four 250kg (551lb) laser-guided bombs, it said.
France, the first country to join US -led air strikes in Iraq, has stepped up aerial operations against Islamic State, including in Syria, after several attacks by the group in France. Powered by two nuclear reactors, it has more than 1,900 crew members.
"Mosul has the potential to be one of the largest. disasters of many, many years", Bruno Geddo, the United Nations refugee agency's main representative in Iraq, said Thursday.
The U.N. refugee agency's representative in Iraq is warning that a looming military operation against the Islamic State group in Mosul "has the potential to be one of the largest man-made disasters for many, many years". "[The operations today] are the extension of our support for the coalition".
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